ICE is denying migrants rightful access to lawyers, legal group says

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials opened the Karnes County Residential Center in South Texas on Aug. 1st. The 532-bed facility is one of three in the USA designed to hold immigrant women and children.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — An organization that gives free legal assistance to migrants in federal immigration detention centers says changes at a South Texas facility have limited lawyers' ability to work with those needing legal aid.

Lawyers with the nonprofit Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES, said policy changes at the Karnes County, Texas, center run counter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement standards and improperly deny migrants legal services.

"We request that ICE immediately address changes in policies and practice that have made this statutory right to consultation impossible for many persons detained at Karnes who seek to consult with RAICES and pro bono volunteers," the group said in a letter to ICE's San Antonio field office.

The letter claims Karnes staffers have delayed detainees from meeting with lawyers and are not letting lawyers meet detainees in their rooms. RAICES teams have also faced restrictions when seeking to enter rooms to meet with detainees, the letter said.

"This has resulted in a sharp decrease in our capacity to meet legal needs of persons detained at Karnes," the letter says.

Before the changes, RAICES had served up to 160 clients each day. Now, it's down to about 50, said Andrea Meza, director of RAICES Family Detention Services Program.

In the past, the lawyers were able to meet with clients several days before their court dates. No longer, Meza said.

"Sometimes we're meeting them for the first time in the courtroom," she said.

The Karnes Detention Center, about 55 miles southeast of San Antonio, is the first facility built by ICE to handle migrants crossing into the United States without legal authorization. It can handle up to 830 people and until early April housed migrant families.

Presently, only female detainees seeking asylum in the United States are at Karnes. The RAICES letter says asylum seekers under ICE standards “are entitled by statute and regulation to consult with persons of the resident's choosing."

CALLER-TIMES ARCHIVE In this July 31, 2014 file photo, a suggestion box hangs on the wall at the Karnes County Residential Center. Officials in Jim Wells County a considering opening a similar facility in San Diego.(Photo: Eric Gay)

In a statement, ICE said changes were needed because the number of detainees at Karnes has risen in recent weeks.

"Consequently, more residents are represented by private attorneys," the statement said. "To ensure attorney access to visitation, the number of daily group meetings were reduced."

"No standard provisions have been changed at Karnes," the statement continued.

Meza, the RAICES director, said asylum seekers without full legal representation face a higher risk of being returned to the country from which they fled to avoid serious harm or death.

"If they can't get assistance navigating a complicated legal system in a language they don't understand, they face deportation back to the place they had fled, literally for their lives," said Meza.

Immigrant authorities have complained for months that migrants facilities are at a breaking point because of the pace of both people crossing the border without authorization and those seeking asylum at official points of entry.

Before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, three top immigration officials testified that they expect conditions to "worsen as we enter the warmer spring and early summer months."

"Our short-term holding facilities were neither designed for the large volume of family units nor for long-term custody," the officials said.

"We consider 4,000 detainees to be a high number of migrants in custody, and in the past had considered 6,000 detainees a crisis," they wrote. "In this fiscal year, CBP has already experienced more than 14,000 detainees in custody on a single day."

Border Patrol Agent Hermann Rivera climbs through a fence as he assists other agents searching an area in Mission, Texas, for five migrants who ran from agents on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

A large group of migrant family wait along the side of the road to be transported after turning themselves in to Border Patrol agents in Penitas, Texas, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

A migrant is searched before being transported after being taken in to custody by Border Patrol near Mission, Texas, after tracking them trough a field on Tuesday, Feb. 29, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

A large group of migrant families wait along the side of the road to be transported after turning themselves in to Border Patrol agents in Penitas, Texas, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Border Patrol Agent Hermann Rivera talks with a 22-year-old women from El Salvador and her 5 and 3-year-old children after crossing the Rio Grande Valley from Mexico near Mission, Texas, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Border Patrol Agent's uses their flashlights to check underneath a home in Penitas, Texas, as they search an area after a camera spotted two migrants walking in the area on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Border Patrol Agent Hermann Rivera radios to other agents as they search an area in Penitas, Texas, after a camera spotted two migrants walking in the area on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Border Patrol Agent Hermann Rivera looks as he drives past a field as other agents as other agents on foot search an area in Penitas, TX for migrants spotted running in the area on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

A Border Patrol Agent standing along the border wall near Panitas, TX, points to a spot in the brush after migrants trying to use a ladder where spotted on camera on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Border Patrol Agent Hermann Rivera takes a fourth-four year-old Honduran man and his 16-year-old son in to custody who had been walking lost for hours after crossing the river from Mexico near Mission TX, on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Border Patrol Agents take in to custody a 22-year-old women from El Salvador and her 5 and 3-year-old children after crossing the river from Mexico near Mission, Texas, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times